First Manchester

[BlukeMalarkey]

RE: First Manchester
With what appears to be the downfall of First in Oldham (and North Manchester as a whole), i'm surprised that other operators haven't upped their game to get pax off the First and onto their service.

One example being the Stotts operated 407 between Denshaw and Oldham, fares seem to be much more reasonable and the service turns up on time or up to five minutes late - compare that with the 83 service First provides of which are regularly held up in traffic around Manchester and driver changeovers at Mumps. If they advertised their service and fares a lot more to the area they operate in, then surely that'll increase the number of passengers using it? Especially because the majority of 83/407 passengers travel between Moorside and Oldham Mumps to connect onto the tram in the morning and evening peaks.

Another aforementioned problem with First, especially in Oldham, is the regular occurrence of buses turning up at Mumps and sitting there as the relieving driver hasn't shown up for duty/or the duty hasn't been covered in the first place which hammers down the reputation that First had (if they even had one in 'first' place). On some days you can even count to 6+ buses sat along each side of the interchange.